Kim and Kanye's Baby Name Is Not That Strange

It's being reported that rapper Kanye West and his reality star girlfriend Kim Kardashian have named their brand-new baby, born this weekend, Kaidence Donda West. Donda was Kanye's late mother's name, so that makes sense, but, um, Kaidence? What's going on with Kaidence?

Well, as we all should know by now, Kim comes from a family of Ks. Her sisters are named Khloé, Kourtney, Kylie, and Kendall. Her mom's name is Kris. Her sorta ex-husband's name is also Kris. Kanye's name is... Kanye. So a K name was to be expected. But Kaidence is a peculiar one. Or so it would seem. In truth it's not terribly uncommon at all. We are living in the era of Jayden, after all. Kaidence, as it turns out, has been a reasonably popular baby name for the past ten years, though it's more commonly spelled Kaydence or Cadence. The name first popped up in the United States in the early 2000s, and then mysteriously spiked in popularity in 2003 and 2004. One baby name website credits the surge of Kaydences (and the attendant Kadences and Cadences and Caidences etc.) to the 2003 movie American Wedding, which featured a character named Cadance, played by January Jones, of all people. (There's a even track named "Cadence" on composer Christophe Beck's score for the film.)

So basically Kim and Kanye got their baby name, or a version of it, from a January Jones character from an American Pie sequel. The actual word cadence is of course used to refer to rhythm and music, so maybe that's why they picked it, given Kanye's career and all. Whatever their reasons, we shouldn't be too surprised by this initially strange-sounding name. Ranking in at No. 271 in the top baby names of 2012, Kaydence is more popular than Caitlin, than Nina, than Joanna, than good old Holly. (It's more popular than Lyric, too.) We're going to have a lot of Kaydences and Kadences and Cadences applying for jobs and entering the known adult world in a couple of decades. And now there's at least one Kaidence. We should prepare for this. It is the future. Someday you'll hobble your weary bones over to the wedding of a Jayden and a Kaidence, friends of your kids Jaxon and Makayla. It's inevitable.